Erik Saxon’s rigor and play

Matthew Deleget from Minus Space just sent a note that included these installation shots of Erik Saxon‘s exhibition, which is up through June 11. Originally from San Francisco but based in NYC since 1968, Saxon was a core member of the Radical Painting Group active in NYC during the 1970s and 1980s. The RPG stressed a return to the core concerns of painting, focusing primarily on the monochrome.

In 1973 Saxon began making abstract work based on the grid format, initially using watercolor on paper and then industrial paint on raw canvas. The same year he began exploring the idea of monochromatic canvases – a series of acrylic drawings consisting of white and off-white squares arranged into groups of three to five panels – but tabled the idea a year later to focus his attention on paintings organized around a nine square grid structure. For the past thirty years, Saxon has worked with the monochrome and it’s relationship to its surroundings–the wall, the floor, its location within the exhibition space, and the viewer. In addition to his studio work, Saxon is a writer and has had his essays published in Artforum, Art in America,Appearances and other respectable art mags.

“Erik Saxon: Select Works, 1973-2011,” Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY. Through June 11, 2011. “You definitely have to stop by and see his works first-hand,” Matthew writes. “I know this is said about a lot of artists’ works, but Saxon is one of the rare artists where it actually applies. The surfaces of his monochromes are really hard to reproduce in photos or describe with words. They are lush, velvety, and have this indelible presence.”

And, upcoming:
I’m also looking forward to seeing the next Minus Space exhibition, “Between This Light and That and Space: Tisch Abelow, Palma Blank, Anne Eastman, Michelle Grabner, Elana Herzog, Carrie Pollack, Tamara Zahaykevich,” which was curated by Douglas Melini. It opens on June 25.

Two Coats of Paint is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To use content beyond the scope of this license, permission is required.

Post navigation

Connect With Us

Miami: A different place than last yearContributed by Sharon Louden / Thank you, Sharon Butler, for giving me the opportunity to be a guest contributor from the art fairs in Miami Beach this week. I started with Pulse ...

Art fairs: Satellite and NADA, 2016Contributed by Sharon Louden / On Friday, I spent almost three hours at the Satellite Art Fair and returned for another half hour on Saturday. It was like having about 20 studio ...

Godward and upward at SLAGContributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Ben Godward is at home with bright colors and exotic shapes. The New York sculptor has for some time been producing boldly optic, resolutely asymmetrical ...

Invitations: Miami and ParisI have two shows opening this week: A solo show (S-105) curated by Robert Yoder/SEASON at the PULSE Contemporary Art Fair and the Paris iteration of “Deux Côtés / Two Sides,” at Galerie Jean Fournier. This ...

Thank you, ShirleyThe following text is Raphael Rubinstein's moving remembrance of Shirley Jaffe, which he read during the October memorial service for Jaffe at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The images are courtesy of Tibor de Nagy, Jaffe's ...

Subscribe VIA Email

Sharing content

Two Coats of Paint is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Contact Sharon Butler via email for permission to use content beyond the scope of this license.